Major Opposition to New Swedish Copyright Law
Written by enigmax on March 17, 2009A new law designed to make it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers will come into force April 1st in Sweden. The IPRED legislation will also increase penalties and ultimately criminalize large scale infringement but according to a new poll, the majority of Swedes are against it.
Due to come into force in just two weeks, the controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) law will make it easier for copyright holders to get their hands on the personal details of suspected illicit file-sharers.
The law has been controversial from the start, with over 50,000 people signing up to the “Stop IPRED” group on Facebook. Swedish Pirate Party Chairman Rick Falkvinge has been most vocal on the issue.
“These laws are written by digital illiterates who behave like blindfolded, drunken elephants trumpeting about in an egg packaging facility,” he told TorrentFreak. “They have no idea how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy: an understanding of how the Internet is reshaping the power structures at their core.”
Nevertheless, Sweden will go ahead with the introduction of the law and, as we predicted back in October last year, the objections to it continue. E24.se reports that a new poll from Sifo indicates that nearly half of all Swedes (48% of those questioned) believe that the IPRED law is wrong.
The group showing the strongest opposition are the typical file-sharers – 15-29 year old men – with a huge 79 percent of those rejecting the new law. In Sweden, 56 percent of men aged between 26 and 35 engage in file-sharing.
From the over 65 years old group, who will generally have less interest in the Internet, 27 percent of them were against IPRED, while 34 percent demonstrated support. The narrow 50-54 year olds group showed a 45 percent opposition to the law.
Overall, just 32 per cent of respondents were in favor of the legislation.
In response to the new law and the heated copyright debate, the National Library of Sweden has closed its open Wi-Fi network. They have thereby disabled online access to a lot of research material, which can now only be accessed upon request -just like in the olden days.
IPRED will come into effect April 1st 2009.
Previously: Mininova Trial Due in Two Months
Next: Movie Goer Searched For Camming Kit, Threatened Over Candy
68 Responses
Sweden should remain the copyright haven, but with 3 torrent site legal trials this year changes may be coming
It’s a sad world we live in these days.
At last the criminal elements that are violating copyright and denying and terrorising authors and creators around the world will be held liable.
We lock up thieves – this can only be a good move to protect creators and distributors of digital content and surely a move towards a more open and free internet for all to use.
Kudos Sweden – IPRED is a move in the right direction indeed.
@3
“This can only be a good move to protect creators and distributors of digital content…”
On that basis, Reasoned Mind, you will of course lock up all the RIAA lackeys who have claimed millions from allegedly criminal consumers… but have not passed these millions on to the artists they claim to represent.
This so called new law is nothing more than American dollars trying to buy off Sweden’s politicians. Apparently they are making progress. Must be some big bucks flying around from Hollywood. What Sweden needs to do is put people in charge from the Pirate Party. This would solve the problem. America wants to police the world & impost its will for profit. George W. would Just invade and occupy Sweden. US Laws should not apply worldwide. When will they understand this?
“These laws are written by digital illiterates who behave like blindfolded, drunken elephants trumpeting about in an egg packaging facility,they have NO IDEA how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy: an understanding of how the Internet is reshaping the power structures at their core.”
!!!!! WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN!!!!!
April Fool’s Day Law
I have the mind of a troll
IPRED? Sounds like it hurts.
Sounds like an apple branded carnivore….
iPred(ator)
Would it be possible this is a new beginning of world wide changes?
Once sweden puts this in place and in the next year or so the results are in their favor, wouldn’t this be a valuable consideration amongst other countries?
Imagine it deters 50% to 60% of pirates in sweden? Wouldn’t that convince other countries to push for similar laws?
It seems the law effectively pushes swedish ISP’s to openly give personal information away, rather than wait for a court order to do so.
Though i am completely blank about swedish laws.
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.23/sweden-ipred-law
Found that site out.
Had in mind – April 1st? hmm…like others but looked on google a bit.
- Maybe April 1st is meant to give a big finger to the pirates? Like up yours you fools, we got you this year.
If the majority of Swedes are against it, then surely the issue can be forced to a major confrontation by a campaign of civil disobedience organized by some organization – to sharpen the issue and bring it to public attention. Surely one thing that the copyright lobbyists fear most is a major confrontation regarding the law – and surely the percentage of people who think that the law is wrong will increase as a result.
Time to get rid off all the crooks from the media industry. They behave like god, oops i mean like dogs and bribe who either their fancy for their financial gain. Time to elect the right people, not the fascists who have made our planet a concentration camp with cctvs all over the place, ripping off the tax payer for saving the rotten bankers, and corporation involved in mass murders and money laundering.
I know that sounds slightly off topic, but they are the same guys.
Governments, in their own arrogance and prodded by the arrogance of greedy corporatists, provoke insurrection…. and then wonder why people revolt.
Reinfeldt, come aprile 1st:
“Y’all got Punk’d ROFL XD”
Reasoned Mind – you say it’s a move int he right direction. If you’d actually read IPREd, you’d know that isn’t the case. With IPRED in force, convicted drug dealers have more rights and more privacies from the police, than alleged copyright infringers have from Media lobby groups and ambulance-chaser lawyers.
If you think that’s good, you need to have a serious reassesment of things.
get what you can, while you can.
Pedophiles should have more rights than pirates. They are the scum of the earth.
I need to re-asses nothing you dolt
“They have no idea how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy”
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“literacy” being the supposed “right” to consume what doesn’t belong to you without compensation? i’d love to see the dictionary that carries that definition!
“if the majority of Swedes are against it, then SURELY the issue can be forced to a major confrontation by a campaign of civil disobedience organized by some organization – to sharpen the issue and bring it to public attention. SURELY one thing that the copyright lobbyists fear most is a major confrontation regarding the law – and SURELY the percentage of people who think that the law is wrong will increase as a result.”
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roze, SURELY you couldn’t possibly be more repetitive? SURELY, SURELY, SURELY ad nauseum x ad infinitum + 1
“They have no idea how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy”
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“literacy” being the supposed “right” to consume what doesn’t belong to you without compensation? i’d love to see the dictionary that carries that definition!
“if the majority of Swedes are against it, then SURELY the issue can be forced to a major confrontation by a campaign of civil disobedience organized by some organization – to sharpen the issue and bring it to public attention. SURELY one thing that the copyright lobbyists fear most is a major confrontation regarding the law – and SURELY the percentage of people who think that the law is wrong will increase as a result.”
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roze, SURELY you couldn’t possibly be more repetitive? SURELY, SURELY, SURELY ad nauseum x ad infinitum + 1
this is one small step for greed, one giant leap for Dictatorship
Reasoned mind…You are a fudkin troll. Piss orf.
@7
Was about to say same thing lyk!!
I wonder how it all will end… Seems a lot of alike laws are pushed around the world. Things like public free networks cosing because of it shore is sad :(
is it possible to DTA TPB? hehehe
1 month to TPB verdict. are you excited as i am?! …thought not
@ unreasoned mind
troll lolol
The politicians of Sweden never votes for the people. First the FRA law and now IPRED.
I wonder if this new law will have consequences on the pirate bay court case. To me it looks like they are making laws as they go along, to serve their master.
Hold out Sweden!
Hold out Europe!
Hold out The World!
The Pirate Parties are coming to your rescue.
We, the Swedish Pirate Party, may not reach all the way to Brussels this election (even if it’s not entirely impossible), but we will almost certainly reach 1% and that means we get all our ballots in the 2010 parliament election distributed for free, and that means a lot.
As a side note: If Sweden had the same level of democracy as e.g. the Netherlands we would have two MPs in the parliament since 2006. But, alas, that didn’t happen then, but just wait and see…
This is it. We need to get our generation to get politicians in.
Remember who is going to be fueling their pension pots? We get actual politicians in we can force the issue at EU level.
Who knows, if we succeed maybe we can start imposing EU laws on Hollywood, wouldn’t that be interesting!
A torrent site here in canada looks like it will be going to court
here is the story
A small Internet search engine company has brought a case against the Canadian Recording Industry Association that could drastically change the way files are shared on the Internet.
In fact, the suit by ISOHunt Web Technologies Inc. could make search engines like Google and Yahoo! illegal, due to the way they can be used to access copyright-protected content online.
The suit, which is before the B.C. Supreme Court, is questioning whether search engine companies are liable for the actions of users who share pirated content online.
The court must decide whether ISOHunt, by allowing users to find pirated copies of films or CDs, is in violation of Canadian copyright laws.
In a statement on its website, ISOHunt president Gary Fung explained that the company decided to launch its own suit after numerous legal threats from the CRIA.
He explained that ISOHunt is a search engine for BitTorrent sites and links posted by users, but that it doesn’t store any of the content, nor work directly with those sharing the files.
“None of the pieces of files exchanged over BitTorrent pass through our servers,” Fung’s statement says.
He explains that the files are exchanged over external person-to-person networks and that ISOHunt serves cached links to those files.
“Some of these files maybe copyright infringing, some aren’t.”
Last week in court, ISOHunt’s lawyer demonstrated to the judge that Google can be used to find all kinds of legally questionable files that can also be found through ISOHunt.
He argued that the only difference is that ISOHunt is used specifically to find BitTorrent files, while Google searches for all file types.
Fung’s statement said he does not wish for his websites or search engines to infringe others’ rights.
The CRIA had argued that the petition by ISOHunt should be converted to a full court case. The court agreed last week, and both sides are now getting ready for a long court battle.
“It’s disappointing to see CRIA wanting to unnecessarily complicate our well defined petition in attempt to bog us down with time and money through messy discovery and in the process the court’s time too,” Fung wrote on the site.
ISOHunt is also embroiled in a legal dispute in the U.S. against the Motion Picture Association of America.
Court proceedings there have been underway for more than a year.
The thing about this is that from what i am aware the majority of the country is against this bill. Im expecting two things from this
1. The people will let the government hear it and demand they start representing them and not Hollywood
2. The pirate party will gain a shit load of votes.
What will that say to Hollywood if the pirate party wins several spots in parliament
might as well change the law but i aint stopping til my cpu gets taken
lets see murderers rapists and drug dealers and what do they focus on?
I’ve told them, and anyone who would sing “Sweden is different”- no, they have signed the same copyright laws, they’ll be forced into make some laws in the future. And now they do. Nobody listened.
Of course I have also told them *NOT* *NOT* *NOT* *NOT* to call themselves “The Pirate Party” – it is not a credible political name. And as such they will not be take seriously be adult politicians.
The need to chose a name which makes politicians think “Ah, serious people” and not “Hm, sounds like criminals.”
Something like the “The alliance for ethical use of copyright”
@Reasoned Mind
If you are going to come in here like that and spout that file sharing is worse than pedophilia at least back it up.
I realize some people here won’t listen to reason but please, for the sake of those that do, could you at least format your comments in a way that might allow us to take your points into consideration. So that we might be able to carry out a respectable conversation.
“Of course I have also told them *NOT* *NOT* *NOT* *NOT* to call themselves ‘The Pirate Party’ – it is not a credible political name. And as such they will not be take seriously be adult politicians.
The need to chose a name which makes politicians think ‘Ah, serious people’ and not ‘Hm, sounds like criminals.’”
Names can become serious as a result of serious usage of them. For example: Whigs, Tories, Democratic Party, suffragettes, and so on.
Well; THE REALITY AND THE FACTS is that USA copyright law violates basic HUMAN RIGHTS as are the RIGHT TO SHARE information and culture with others, Period.
If the swedish government and the whore of ‘Beatrice Ask’ want to force this madness, then, good luck for them in the near future… They will be remembered without any doubt as a government violator of basic human rights.
It will be necessary to see if the swedish citizens will be sufficiently strong as for rejecting and stopping this illegality or simply will be a sheeps buying all the garbage that the music and movie industry from USA produce in these days.
So, despite being supporting by only 32% of Swedes, the IPRED legislation passed.
Then for the sake of accuracy, it’s time to stop calling Sweden a democracy.
At least until the facists elements who’ve wrested control of the government are put on the chopping block come election day.
Holy SMokes man, why is everyne trying so hard to not keep it free? I dont get it dude.
RT
http://www.online-privacy.pro.tc
@ 41
DAMN RIGHT
“The law has been controversial from the start, with over 50,000 people signing up to the “Stop IPRED” group on Facebook. Swedish Pirate Party Chairman Rick Falkvinge has been most vocal on the issue.”
INTERNET ACTIVISM FTW.
:(
i feel that Sweden will have a change of power very soon…
when is Sweden’s next election?
The thing is, no matter what gets said about this issue on the internet, how many of you are actually going to go out of your way (if you live in Sweden) to actually do something about it?
My guess is that the number is rather close to 0. Too many people nowadays are all mouth and no trousers, and this goes for almost all countries and peoples around the world.
I personally live in the UK, and we’re being raped from arsehole to breakfast time for all sorts of things. They’re on the bandwagon at the moment about removing people’s access to the internet with only marginal, if any, proof that they’re sharing files via any channel.
Let’s face it. Until people actually start doing anything about these things, nothing will change. Activism is the way forwards, not online slanging matches between trolls and idiots who can’t identify them.
*waits for flames*
@9
IPRED? Sounds like a turd =P
> In response to the new law and the heated copyright debate, the National Library of Sweden has closed its open Wi-Fi network. They have thereby disabled online access to a lot of research material, which can now only be accessed upon request -just like in the olden days.
–
As a member of another National Library, I am shocked by the decision of NLS. I would have thought that one of the key roles of National Libraries throughout the world would be to provide the people of their respective countries of as much relevant information as is possible!
“lets see murderers rapists and drug dealers and what do they focus on?”
Oh what, you think they’re ignoring rapists and murderers due to this? Get a grip mate.
“Of course I have also told them *NOT* *NOT* *NOT* *NOT* to call themselves “The Pirate Party” – it is not a credible political name. And as such they will not be take seriously be adult politicians.
The need to chose a name which makes politicians think “Ah, serious people” and not “Hm, sounds like criminals.”
Something like the “The alliance for ethical use of copyright”
I entirely agree with you – actually, it’s not politicians IMHO but ordinary voters they should worry about. I think many, many people will dismiss even finding out more and learning about the parties aims and ideals dus to the name – it just sounds amateurish and doesn’t inspire confidence when your talking about an entity that will potentially have a real effect on your life.
The stupidest thing is that they’re, as far as I can work out, not even focused much at all on copyright issues but rather freedom of infomation and other issues to do with the digital age.
Roze: “Names can become serious as a result of serious usage of them. For example: Whigs, Tories, Democratic Party, suffragettes, and so on.”
None of those names have the burden of being linked to possibly criminal activity – what are you talking about?
Let’s take our picks and forks, head for the parasitics entairtainement companies and shreed them to pieces. This way what is left of them if any might understand.
We the people of Sweden have no say in political matters anymore.
Things like the Lissabon treaty and the IPRED* law gets pushed through, and we don’t have a choice.
If it weren’t for the Internet, I wouldn’t even have heard about either of them because there sure is no adequate coverage in the propaganda network.
*) IPRED should be called IMRED, because there’s no such thing as Intellectual Property. It’s really Intellectual Monopoly.
Seriously can’t even use half the items i buy anymore because of overboard copy protection and now they’re changing laws in Sweden?
*sigh*
2 weeks left.
will be funny to see how damn pissed people will be at this new law.
and locking people up in jail or make them slave for the rest of their life for no reward over some 0’s and 1’s is very uncivilized. I guess it’s a trend, they tend to come back after a certain time period.
Those guys are f*cking idiots. You can’t fight “piracy”!
you cant stop the music, nobody can stop the music.
all the labels are about to die & they dont even know it.
just what i expected of them.
2010 man 2010……
For the record, someone has now pirated the name “Reasoned Mind” here on TF and made multiple postings on this thread that are not, in fact, from me. This authentic disclaimer is my only comment on this thread thus far.
“This authentic disclaimer is my only comment on this thread thus far.”
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Now, someone is trying to claim the name “Reasoned Mind,” claiming that several of my posts here are false and not by the real “Reasoned Mind.” I assure you, this is not the case, and is only a clever attempt by someone to try to pirate the name “Reasoned Mind.”
Disregard that, i suck cactus.
“and locking people up in jail or make them slave for the rest of their life for no reward over some 0’s and 1’s is very uncivilized.”
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you sound very young. and it’s not just “0’s and 1’s” it’s the sum of a lot of work and money. is murder okay because people are just a bunch of atoms? of course not. don’t be an idiot.
I would like to see some kind of encryption system from the TPB.
Otherwise we gone lose this beatiful site !
@60 oh i get it so the idea of adapting to a better business model is not ok right forget about acknowledging faults an flaws straight from the source in Hollywood right?
@60
What a lame comparison. Compare downloading something the music industry made with murder, pathetic.
@47 Unfortunate Truth
“Let’s face it. Until people actually start doing anything about these things, nothing will change. Activism is the way forwards, not online slanging matches between trolls and idiots who can’t identify them.”
So, what have you done about it?
I live in the UK too and until we lose the “I’m alright Jack” every man for himself culture nothing will be done about anything. This country is screwed.
And another thing – how often we hear politicians say the phrase “When we are in power”. What cheek and arrogance. These pissheads were elected to SERVE the people, not rule them.
Yay. Looks like Sweden’s getting raIPRED. Amirite?
Incidentally, two thumbs up to Reasoned Mind. You are a pro troll. ^_^
the swedish govt hates the swedish people why do you think they flood sweden with immigrants and put up a ton of affirmative action programs for them
FOOLS this ERA FULL OF GREEDY LAW AND COMPANY!!!
They shall Fall
They will lose all people support
they want to play like that WE make THEM FALL to HELL
A lateral shift seems to be in order.
If a bunch of folks managed to get copyright laws as a whole changed to drastically reduce the privileges of rights holders,
it’d effectively snap the sword-edge of all this bullshit globally.
This is how it should be laid out .. tell me if im rong im from sweden . i think that we the ppl are renting the internet from the isp’s like a big one in sweden called Telia we pay 400kr 90$u.s ok to telia every month for 100mb upload and download speeds :) but here is the ? why should we the ppl get the charge, THE ISP’S OF THE WORLD WHO ARE MAKING TONS OF BILLIONS OF £££ $$$ SHOULD FORK OUT MONEY TO HOLLYWOOD TV STATIONS AND SO ON U GET MY POINT THEY SHOULD PAY ON A MONTHLY BASIS TO TV STATIONS AND ANYTHING THAT GETS DOWNLOADED AS COPYWRITE WHY MAKE US GET FINED AND LOOOK LIKE THE BAD GUY HOLLYWOOD MOVIEMAKERS SHOULD GO AFTER YOU THE ISP PROVIDERS NOT US THAT DOWNLOAD TORRENTS , ISP MAKE MONEY OF US AND DONT SHARE THERE PART WITH COPYWRITE STUFF ????????????????????????????????
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